Yes, with his hands. About the first rule you teach little kids about playing keeper is this: Inside the box, you can touch it with your hands. Outside the box, you're just another player. It's a little more complicated than that with back passes and so on, but that rule is enough for 7-year-olds.

As a result, Gspurning got a red card and was ejected. Sounders played a man down, scored a second goal and won 2-0.

The team won't have Gspurning for the first game of the next round of the playoffs on Saturday against Portland. Backup Marcus Hahnemann finished Wednesday's game in goal and will likely be the starter on Saturday.

SoccerAmerica reported Gspurning pulling a Gspurning this way:

Gspurning had already fumbled several balls when he came of his area to catch the ball like a punt returned making a fair catch. Referee Silviu Petrescu had no choice but to send off the Austrian, who had only recently regained his starting job after being benched in the middle of the winless streak.

Sounders coach Sigi Schmid tried to cut his keeper some slack.

SoccerAmerica says Schmid said a high bounce of the ball threw Gspurning off.

"He felt that if he would have been sideways on that he might have noticed that there was no one from their team that was going to break in behind him and he could have let the ball go over his head and he could have picked it up in the 18-yard box," the Seattle coach said. "But he wasn't sure and he wanted to come out and head the ball, and realized the ball had bounced too high for him to head it. He thought he had jumped back into the box and then caught the ball, and then he was outside the box."

"I just wanted to be ready if the ball is bouncing low. We talked about this at halftime — that they would chip the ball over the defense — and I wanted to be ready and make the step forward. Then it bounced a little higher than as expected, and I thought, 'OK, I'm not too far from the box, so I should make a few steps back and catch it.' I think I missed one step back."